


The Power Of Love

by nebuvoid



Category: Devilman (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It, Intersex Ryo, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, devilbaby akira, manga ryo and manga akira (with a couple sprinkles from other versions), my canon now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-03-27 03:36:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13872282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebuvoid/pseuds/nebuvoid
Summary: He took a good look at Akira as he ran towards Ryo. Akira looked like a child beast - wings on his head framed his face, sharp teeth and claws gleamed, fluffy fur covered his lower half - all very contrary to his rounded face still not changed by puberty. His tail swished lazily behind him.It was, frankly, adorable.[DISCONTINUED - info in chapter 7]





	1. 01

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!  
> This is my first fic in years, AND English is my third language, so I apologize for grammatical errors and whatnot ;v; 
> 
> A few words as a disclaimer:  
> \- ryo is a hybrid of the og manga, devilman lady, the ovas and a pinch of crybaby.  
> \- the same goes for akira. i wanted to represent them both as what i consider their truest selves.  
> \- other characters will appear in following chapters, i will change tags accordingly as the story proceeds  
> \- im forgetful so there should probably be something else here. welp
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy my fic, I'd be happy about any comments, and if you wanna talk devilman in general you can come visit me on my tunglr tumblr nebulous-void :)

Four moons decorated the void of night.

  
There used to be six, maybe even more, but according to NASA the fifth and sixth moon had collided and destroyed one another in the past. They were still there, technically, but they were too small to officially be considered as moons. Their debris was still orbiting earth, however.

 

Ryo tightened his coat as he looked up at the moons. Like every other time he did so, his heart was filled with melancholy. For what, he didn't know.  
He finished his cigarette and stubbed it out in the ashtray. He took one last look at the night sky and walked back inside.  
A sigh escaped Ryo's lips as he closed the balcony door. It was pointless to try to decipher his seemingly reasonless feelings. They've been haunting him his entire life and so far he had found no answer. No point in dwelling on it.  
What there was a point to was direct action - Ryo took a seat on his lounge sofa and grabbed his phone from the coffee table. His thumbs moved rapidly over the display as he typed.

 

_**(TODAY)** _

  
_**'Akira I'm back in Japan. I need to meet up with you. Are you free?'** _  
_**(21:42)** _

 

Not a minute later, his phone pinged with an enthusiastic reply.

 

 **'RYO!!!!!! :star-struck: :hugging face:'**  
**(21:42)**  
**'u didnt tell me u were coming back?? r u staying for good???'**  
**(21:43)**

 

Ryo snickered. Akira's texts were always so lively. It was hard not to smile. He had last seen Akira in-person before he left Japan, at age 14 to study in the United States. Akira had cried, as he tended to do, when he hugged Ryo goodbye at the airport. The fact that someone would miss him enough to cry at his departure warmed Ryo's heart to this day.  
He replied.

 

 _**':** **) Yes, I'm staying in Japan for the time being. I'm sorry I didn't let you know sooner.'** _  
_**'Things were a bit hectic lately so I didn't have the time to let you know.'** _  
_**(21:44)** _

**'thats ok!!! im just happy youre here!! so since when are u back?'**  
**(21:44)**

 _**'My flight landed two hours ago. I've been back home for about half an hour.'** _  
_**(21:44)** _

**'omg arent u tired??'**  
**'u should rest for tonite'**  
**'oh but now im too excited to sleep :laughing:'**  
**(21:45)**

 

Ryo covered his mouth to hide his goofy smile. Akira was too cute. He pinched his own cheek to reign himself in. Control yourself.

 

 _**'If it's alright with you, I could come pick you up now. It's the weekend. We could hang out and catch up.'** _  
_**(21:46)** _

**'!!!!'**  
**'wait pick me up?'**  
**'didnt you say your parents are doing research in peru?'**  
**(21:46)**

 **'They are. I have a driver's license.'**  
**(21:47)**

 **'dude!!! alright!!! :star-struck:'**  
**'wait youre not 18 yet?? ryooo'**  
**(21:48)**

 _**'I have my ways.'** _  
_**(21:48)** _

**':unamused face:'**  
**'did u bribe the driving teacher -_-'**  
**(21:48)**

 _**'Akira, don't ask questions you don't want to hear the answer to.'** _  
_**(21:49)** _  
_**'So do you want me to pick you up or what?'** _  
_**(21:50)** _

**':rolling eyes: of course i do!'**  
**'just gimme a sec to tell the makimura's im leaving and yknow pack my stuff and im good'**  
**(21:50)**

 _**'Alright then. I should be there in about 20 minutes.'** _  
_**(21:51)** _

\- - -

Ryo hadn't even parked properly before Akira ran out of the Makimura's house, with a big smile on his face. Ryo couldn't help but smile back. What a goof.  
Akira fidgeted with the strap of the overnight bag hanging off his shoulder as Ryo positioned his fancy sports car on the sidewalk. He set the parking brake in place, unbuckled his seatbelt, had a quick look in the mirror to check if his fringe looked right, and got out.

  
"Akira!" Ryo dramatically opened his arms. Akira grinned and returned the hug.

  
"Ryo! It's so good to see you again! How've you been?"

  
Akira still had his hands on his waist. Ryo tried his hardest to ignore how it made his heart beat faster. Akira was always like that - kind and sweet, at times touchy, but always oblivious. He didn't know what the simple contact did to Ryo.  
Ryo patted Akira's arm in a friendly manner. Because they were friends. Buddies. Akira's best platonic buddy boy, Ryo Asuka. Yup, that's him.

  
"Oh, you know. Same old, same old."

  
"Ryo, how is studying in a foreign country on your own the same old." Akira laughed and shook his head.

  
Ryo grinned toothily. "Touché."  
He gave Akira one last pat on the arm and walked back to the car. "Come on, we can catch up on the drive back."

 

\- - -

 

"So uh... why aren't we at your parents' house, Ryo?" Akira took of his shoes and put on the indoor slippers.

  
"It'd feel weird without them there. I'm renting this apartment instead." Ryo said as they both walked into his spaceous living room.

  
It didn't really look lived in yet. As expected, when Ryo had only been back to Japan for a couple hours. Akira instantly made up his mind to help his friend make his new apartment feel more homey. The corners of his mouth tugged up at the thought.

  
"What're you smiling about, silly?" Ryo flicked Akira's head. "You can leave your bag where ever. C'mere and help me pull out the sofa bed - I don't wanna do that shit when we're about to fall asleep."  
Akira clapped his hands. "Oh yeah, let's have a slumber party, like old times!"

  
His timid nature instantly caught up with him though, and he flushed in embarassment at his childish outburst. "I mean..."

  
Ryo had to bite back a grin. So cute.  
He doubted he was going to be able to sleep peacefully, but he could never deny Akira anything.

  
"That's a great idea actually. Now come help me with the sofa so we can start our retro slumber party."

  
Akira nodded and helped Ryo tug out the sofa bed. Then they covered it in blankets and pillows. Ryo switched off the main light and turned on one of the decorative table lamps.  
Akira sat down and let himself fall backwards into the cushions. A happy sigh escaped his lips.

  
"So comfy..."

  
"You're not already gonna fall asleep on me, are you?" Ryo poked Akira's side.

  
Akira flinched and flailed his arms. He was a bit ticklish. He sat up and crossed his arms carefully to protect himself from any future tickle pokes.

  
"No way, I haven't seen you in two years. I'm still waiting on that update of yours - how was America? Did you make any foreign friends? What are you going to do now? You never told me much about that stuff in our texts either." Akira pouted.

  
Ryo seated himself more comfortably in the sea of pillows. He thought carefully about how to answer. After all, he wanted to have at least one more normal peaceful weekend with his friend, before he revealed the horrid truth he now knew about.  
Ryo tugged at a strand of hair as he talked.

  
"America was alright. I don't know, there's not much to tell, really. My parents came to visit me twice and the rest of the time i lived with our secretary, Jenny.  
People are louder and more direct over there. I didn't really befriend anyone - I prefer your company."

  
Ryo looked over at his friend and ah, there it was. A sweet, goofy grin.

"Aw, Ryo, you're my favourite friend too." Akira bumped his shoulder with his.

  
Ryo lightly bumped him back. "So, what's new with you?"

  
"Hmm..." Akira gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I pretty much always told you what happened when it happened....unlike someone", Akira looked purposely over at his friend, "I try my best to keep my best friend in the loop."

  
"Alright, alright, I get it."

  
Akira grinned and his gaze turned sneaky. "Is that so? Then you wanna tell me why you smell like cigarette smoke?"

  
Ryo pulled out a lighter from his trousers' pocket. "Might have something to do with this."

  
Akira pouted.  
"Ryooo, you know smoking's bad for you."

  
Ryo ignored the statement. He got up and waggled the lighter between his fingers.

  
"Well, since you got me, I might as well go out for a smoke. Are you coming with?"

  
Akira sighed loudly as he got up. "Fiiine."  
He followed Ryo outside, onto the balcony.

 

\- - -

 

Ryo lit his cigarette and took a drag. He huffed out the smoke and watched as it curled upwards. Akira frowned a bit at the smell, but didn't say anything.  
They both leaned against the wall and looked up at the moons. Neither spoke for a while.  
Just when Ryo was about to take a last drag from his cig, Akira turned to him and spoke in a serious tone.

  
"Ryo, I feel like you're not telling me something. Is there something bothering you?"

  
Oh, Akira. He could never keep things from him, not for long. Ryo sighed and smiled sadly at the other.

  
"You're right, there is something. A big Something. I wanted to have a normal fun weekend with you before I delved into that. But it seems I'm not as good at hiding secrets as I believe myself to be."

  
Akira's brow creased in worry. He grabbed Ryo's hand.

"You can tell me anything." He reassured him.

  
Ryo gave him a weak smile. "What I'm about to tell you is... not pleasant. It's horrible, in fact."

  
Ryo stubbed out his cigarette.  
Akira steeled himself. So did Ryo.

  
"Alright, here I go. The truth is-"

 

\- - -

 

"Ready to do this?"

  
Akira tugged Ryo into a quick but tight hug. He then softly pushed Ryo by his shoulders and nodded solemnly at him.

  
"Let's go."

  
Ryo opened the heavy warehouse doors. The both of them were instantly assaulted by a bass line so loud you could feel it in your bones. Akira struggled to adjust to the many strobe lights moving in hectic patterns across the otherwise dark room.  
Together, they walked inside, towards doom.

 

\- - -

 

Ryo was already gripping an empty wine bottle, ready to bang it on the next hard surface and use it to slice the party goers bloody. Demons loved blood! But a sudden gut feeling made him stop in motion.  
He shouldn't do that. Akira won't like it. Akira won't understand his reasoning. Akira would despise him for injuring these people, even if they were mindless pleasure-seekers bound to be dead soon.

Ryo didn't know where this bad premonition was coming from but he was not going to question it. Better be on the safe side. He didn't want Akira to dislike him.  
Ryo broke the bottle in half. He took his jacket, shirt and binder off.

  
'Welp, here goes nothing.' He thought, then proceeded to stab himself with the broken bottle.

Blood gushed from his abdomen.  
Ryo hissed in pain. Something told him he needn't worry about injuries putting him in actual danger, so he continued to slice his arms and chest up. Not too deep wounds, just enough for the blood to surface and entice the demons.  
Ryo looked down at himself. Blood was running down his chest and stomach. It was kinda enticing to look at, in a grotesque sort of way. Fear trickled down his back, and he grinned sharply in response.

  
Let the bloodbath begin.

 

\- - -

  
Not long after, you could hear the first screams.

  
\- - -

  
Ryo quickly put his coat back on and tied its belt sloppily to keep it in place while he ran.  
He had lost Akira in the ensuing chaos. Demons were bursting out of people left and right, and Ryo tried his best to avoid them as he stumbled across the dance floor. The cuts on his body were deeper than he had intended - they stung with every heavy step.

  
Lost in hazy thought, Ryo didn't pay attention to his surroundings for a minute.  
A terrible mistake.

  
There was a monstrosity right across from him, only a couple metres away. Ryo quickly pulled out his gun.  
As the demon rushed at Ryo, seemingly impertinent to his bullets, Ryo's eyes widened in fear. He didn't know why, but his ever present gut feeling told him that fusing with a demon wasn't a possibilty for him here. Was this how it ended for him?

  
Just as the demon was about to reach him, hideous spiked claw arm readily raised to slice him open, Ryo's vision whited out.

  
Next thing he knew the demon was nowhere in sight and he was standing there completely unharmed.  
What just...?

  
But there was no time to contemplate what the hell just happened - he had to find Akira. Now that pandemonium had broken loose, he had to ensure Akira stayed alive. Sweet, kind, gentle Akira... Ryo clenched his fist in determination and ran into the next best direction.

  
And then a blood curling roar shook the warehouse.

  
Ryo's breath stuttered out a breath. Amon, his mind provided.  
He pulled his jacket tighter over his naked upper body and continued running towards the direction of all the noise.

 

\- - -

  
He was staring.

  
"Akira...?" Ryo softly called out to his friend. At least he hoped it was still his friend, and not a demon. He wasn't entirely certain, with all the demon bits decorating the dance floor.  
At the sound of Ryo's voice, Akira turned around.

  
Ryo was suddenly overcome with the feeling of this being a bit different than how it usually went. Than usual...?  
It's not like Best Friend Fuses With Demon was a regular occurence. What a silly thought. Ryo mentally brushed it off, ignored that undefinable feeling in his chest.

  
He took a good look at Akira as he ran towards Ryo. Akira looked like a child beast - wings on his head framed his face, sharp teeth and claws gleamed, fluffy fur covered his lower half - all very contrary to his rounded face still not changed by puberty. His tail swished lazily behind him.

  
It was, frankly, adorable.

  
Ryo reached towards one of the wings on the boy's head. "How's it feel? You okay?"

  
Akira's now black framed eyes met his. His grin really showed off his new fangs.

  
"I feel so strong!!" He flexed his arms in excitement. "Fighting feels incredible!"

  
He grinned at Ryo, and Ryo weakly smiled back. No point in worrying his friend about his injuries, Ryo was going to be fine. Akira hadn't noticed yet anyway.  
Akira suddenly frowned. His nose twitched as he lowered his arms.

"What is...that awful smell..?"

  
He turned his back to Ryo to take a look at the carnage left in his wake. Akira's happy mood evaporated instantly. He walked forward, taking in the horrid view before him.  
Colourful demon guts were scattered all over the dance floor. The electronic equipment was utterly destroyed, the turntable broken in half. Most of the light system was broken, with a couple strobe lights still weakly flickering on and off, a mockery of the mindless fun and pleasure that happened here not an hour ago.  
The floor was decorated in piles of demon and human corpses.

  
Akira's expression fell. His body shifted back into his mostly human form. The only visible demonic features where his darkened eyes, sharpened teeth and fingernails.

  
"Ryo, I just killed people."

He looked down at his clawed hands. Yellow blood was sticking to his fingers.  
Ryo grabbed one of his hands to wipe the blood off with a tissue. Then he repeated the action with the other hand.

 

"No. You killed demons. You're protecting people, Akira."

  
Ryo squeezed Akira's fingers in reassurance.

"You did amazing work. I knew your heart was pure - this just proved it."

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly to form a crooked smile.  
And then Ryo's legs gave out under him.

  
"Ryo!" Akira caught Ryo before he could split his head open on the glass splinter covered floor. "What's wrong?"

  
Ryo felt too dizzy to answer. Forming words suddenly felt impossibly hard. A vague murmur was all he could muster. He was so tired. It seemed that his status of shock that had kept the pain at bay was evaporating rappidly.

  
Akira carefully kneeled on the ground with Ryo in his arms. He noticed red stains of blood seeping through Ryo's coat.  
"Ryo?"

  
Akira hesitantly untied and opened Ryo's coat. He was momentarily surprised by the sight of soft rounded breasts.

"Wha-?"

  
But before he could blush, his sight jumped to the blood seeping from various cuts on Ryo's body. He could be confused about Ryo's breasts later. Now wasn't the time.  
Akira shifted Ryo a bit in his arms to get a better look and Ryo hissed in pain. They both frowned, in worry and in pain respectively. He gently wrapped Ryo into his coat again and stood up, carrying his friend in his arms in a princess carry.  
He tried to make eye contact with Ryo.

"I'm gonna take you to the hospital."

  
Ryo wanted to complain but his hazy mind wouldn't let him. He 'mmph'd instead.  
Akira took careful steps back out of the warehouse. They'd need to take care of the mess in there later on. How, he didn't know - but Ryo usually found a way for things like that.  
He shifted back into his mostly human form and rematerialized his pants with his newfound powers. Amon sure had some weirdly specific abilities... but he wasn't going to look a gift demon in the mouth.

  
Akira folded out his wings, leathery and black as the void. He readjusted his grip on Ryo, who seemed to barely stay awake, and took off into the sky.


	2. 02

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! i added some tags to the fic.  
> also! i have both mikis in my fic- manga miki and crybaby miki. cb miki is named mikki for convenience. theyre twins. i love them.

Akira nervously shook his leg while he sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair. Sat and waited. He tugged at his shirt mindlessly to occupy himself. His shirt, that he had rematerialized with his... clothes beam powers, along with his shoes. The trousers he had willed back into existence after the Sabbath rave looked perfectly ordinary as well.

Akira had some questions regarding specific demonic powers that he hoped Ryo could answer because man, that was so weird. Convenient, but weird.

He looked at the clock on the wall. 3:45AM. God, he was so tired. But he couldnt go to sleep without having seen with his own eyes that Ryo was okay.

It's not like Ryo's injuries were life threatening. He needed a transfusion and some stitches, yes, but he was going to be alright. But Akira wasn't allowed to come into Ryo's room until the nurses finished cleaning and wrapping up his more minor injuries.

Akira put both of his legs on the ground and bounced them again. How much longer was this gonna take? Just as he was about to get up and ask, the door to Ryo's room opened and two nurses walked out. Both of them were a tad flushed. Akira huffed in amusement. Ryo's beauty had that kind of effect on new people. Hell, even he was sometimes still stunned by it.

Anyway.

Akira gave the passing nurses a nod and took their place in the hospital room. He closed the door softly and turned to his friend.

Ryo was sitting up in the bed, a bit pale. Well, even paler than usual. Paler due to the anemia. Akira scowled at himself - his thinking process was off the charts right now. He really needed some sleep.

"What are you scowling at?"

Ryo lifted the corner of his mouth and waved his hand at the (more comfortable looking) chair nearby. Akira took a seat and scooted the seat closer to the bed.

"It's nothing. So, how're you feeling?"

"Sore but other than that I'm alright. The nurses said I'll be 'back in top form' in no time."

"Oh, I bet they did."

They smirked at each other in mirth. Akira snorted and shook his head. Silence filled the room. It was the comfortable kind though, so Akira didn't mind.

He startled a bit when Ryo put his hand on his knee. Akira looked up in question. Ryo blinked his long eyelashes at him, but didn't say anything. Akira felt himself grow warm as Ryo scrutinized him.

"What uh..."

"You seem to be taking the whole fusing-with-a-demon thing well. I'm glad."

Akira scratched his cheek.

"I mean, it didn't sink in yet, I guess? And I was kinda busy worrying about you, y'know."

"Ah."

Ryo patted Akira's knee in reassurance. "Well, now you know that I'm okay. Sorry I worried you."

"What happened anyway? Those cuts didn't look like they were done by a demon? They clearly weren't done with the intention to kill. Did one of the party goers attack you or something?"

Ryo smirked toothily at him. "I guess you could say that."

Akira squinted his eyes in suspicion. "Ryo... what did you do."

Ryo was fully grinning now. "Demons love blood. I did what I had to to make them appear."

"Ryo!"

Ryo scoffed dismissively and patted Akira's knee again. "It worked - you fused, and I'm fine as well."

Akira stopped Ryo's hand with his own. His smaller one didn't quite cover Ryo's hand. "Ryo, we are literally in the hospital right now."

"We sure are."

"Don't you sass me."

Ryo raised his eyebrows at him. Akira huffed and rolled his eyes. "Who am I kidding, I can't stay mad at you."

He held Ryo's hand with his own, his fingers slotting in perfectly. "Seriously though, I'm glad you didn't get gored by a demon. Thanks for not dying on me."

"You say the sweetest things."

Ryo was trying to play it off, but the blush on his pale skin was clearly visible. He let himself fall backwards into the big cushions and closed his eyes to escape. His hand slipped from Akira's hold. Ryo covered his face with his forearm.

Silence. This time of a different kind. Not necessarily uncomfortable, but not quite comfortable either. A bit awkward, maybe.

"You should go home now. It's late and you need the rest."

Akira snickered under his breath. Ryo had always been easily flustered by platonic intimacy. He guessed it had something to with Ryo's parents being of the more distant type. They weren't bad parents by any means, but he had yet to something besides a friendly pat on the back from them.

It didn't help that they often traveled for research purposes, what with his father being a renown scientist. His mother always prefered to tag along with him, leaving Ryo with their secretary Jenny for months at a time.

"Akira?"

"Huh? What?" Akira was brought back from his thoughts.

"You still with me? You look like you're about to pass out."

Ryo lifted his arm and made a shoo-ing motion towards the door. "Go home, you goof. Shoo!"

Akira gave Ryo a deadpan look. Ryo just raised his eyebrows in retaliation.

Akira sighed. "Fine, but I'll come check in on you tomorrow, got that?"

"Of course."

Akira walked to the door, turned on his heel, gave Ryo a little wave, then left. Ryo covered his face with his forearm again and tried to fall asleep.

 

\- - -

Akira tried his hardest to stealthily sneak his way to his bedroom. Just as he thought he had succeeded, a quiet but scolding voice metaphorically grabbed him by the neck.

"Didn't you say you were staying the weekend at Ryo's?"

Ah. He had forgotten about that, what with all the demons and whatnot. It also didn't help that Ryo told him to 'go home' - in his tired mind he had flown back to the Makimura house on auto-pilot. Akira wearily turned around.

"Mikki, I'm tired. Can't I explain this tomorrow morning?"

Mikki took in Akira's state. Wind ruffled hair, droopy sleepy eyes, framed by...eyeliner? She walked closer to him and put a slender hand on his shoulder. Her brow furrowed in concern.

"Is everything alright?"

Akira sighed. Mikki would want some sort of answer before she was going to let him sleep. He silently opened his bedroom door and waved for Mikki to come in. "Not in the hallway."

Mikki followed him inside and took a seat on his computer chair. Akira gently closed the door and flopped face down onto his bed. What to say... he couldn't tell the complete truth, obviously. But he couldn't lie to Mikki either - she'd see right through him. He turned his head to speak.

"Had to take Ryo to the hospital. Came back here because it would've felt weird in his flat on my own."

"The hospital? Is he okay? What happened?"

"We uh... we were attacked by muggers and he had some stab wounds. Nothing super serious!"

Akira flapped his arms at the expression Mikki made.

"But uh... I was still...worried so I brought Ryo to the hospital."

Mikki covered her mouth with her hand in shock. "Oh, Akira... I'm sure that was a scary experience. I'm sorry."

Akira let himself sink deeper into his duvet. "Yeah... so now I'm. Y'know. Really beat."

Mikki nodded. "That's understandable. I'm sure you'll want to check in on Ryo tomorrow, right? You should rest then." Her smile was like a sunset. Not harsh but soft and comforting, warm and delicate.

Akira weakly smiled back and closed his eyes. Mikki got up and kneeled next to the bed. She petted his hair, dragging her fingers gently through the unruly strands. Akira breathed out heavily and relaxed further. She continued to do so until Akira's breath completely evened out. Then she got up and carefully took of Akira's shoes for him, and took out a blanket from the cupboard to cover Akira with it, since he had fallen asleep on top of his duvet. She tucked the boy in and smiled gently.

"Good night." She whispered.

Mikki quietly left Akira's bedroom and went back to sleep herself.

 

\- - -

 

Blinding white light stretching out into an endless void.

Eternal whiteness.

In the corner of his eye, a flutter.

Akira turned. He didn't see, only sense, a smile in his direction, a soft caress against his cheek, and then, he fell. The white nothingness became smaller, smaller, until it disappeared in the distance above.

Akira kept falling. He wasn't scared - it was a slow, gentle decend.

Falling.

Drifting.

Gliding.

He felt so drowsy... like he was being held in a warm and familiar embrace. Utterly comfortable. Akira closed his eyes, and then-

 

"KNOCK KNOCK, GET UP YOU LAZY BUM!" Ironically, Miki didn't actually knock as she barrelled into Akira's bedroom.

"Mrh...whu...?" Said the blanket burrito on the bed. Akira was abruptly dragged from the land of dreams. He tried to chase whatever he could remember, but the more he tried, the more the bits of his dream were escaping him. All he knew was that it felt light and warm and hopeful.

Miki stomped inside and kneeled next to Akira's bed. She patted Akira's head which poked out from under the blanket - unlike her sister, she wasn't being very gentle about it.

"C'mon. I heard you had a long night but you've slept in long enough - it's past noon!"

"Nnnh..." Akira whined as Miki pulled his blanket burrito apart. She methodically unwrapped him, as if she had done this many times in the past. Probably because she had done this many times in the past. Akira curled up sideways, hugged his pillow and whined some more. Miki pinched his nose.

"Aaa-Kiii-Raaa."

Finally Akira opened his eyes a sliver. He nasally mumbled something that might have been a 'morning', or maybe 'Miki'. Miki let go of his nose and jumped up from her crouching position in triumph.

"Afternoon actually. Now get up and shower, lunch will be ready soon!"

Akira sat up groggily and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Mh."

"And don't fall asleep again."

"Mh."

Akira yawned, stretched lying down, sat up again, got up, stretched another time for good measure. Miki watched to make sure he didn't spontaneously pass out into bed once more.

"We good?"

"Yeah, yeah."

He pushed Miki out the door as he walked into the hallway. Miki giggled in amusement. Sleepy Akira was a rare but cute sight. He was usually good at getting up on time.

"Don't drown in the shower!" She yelled and skipped down the stairs.

Akira scratched his belly idly and shuffled his way to the bathroom.

 

\- - -

 

Akira sighed happily - he felt refreshed and awake. He dried himself off and hung the wet towels up.

As he was about to grab his clothes from where he usually put them, on the counter, he realized that in his zombie state he had forgotten to bring fresh clothes along with him. God, sleepy Akira was useless.

Akira sighed and wrapped one of the wet towels back around his waist. And then his stomach growled.

Right. Food.

He quickly went back to his room to get dressed. He stopped in the hallway as something in the mirror caught his attention. Specifically his face.

Akira walked closer. He poked his cheek and brushed along his jaw. No changes there. But his eyes... he looked like had painted his eyes black, with eyeshadow, or whatever it was called. Huh. It wasn't a bad look just. New. He'd get used to it, he supposed. Could be worse.

For good measure, he opened his mouth. Ah, he'd thought brushing his teeth felt different today but he had been too tired to consider it more. His canine teeth - well, they truly looked canine now. Very pointy. Sharp. He tapped his index finger on one of his teeth for good measure. And promptly hissed as a drop of blood rolled down his finger.

"Oops."

He'd have to be careful not to bite his lip to hard. Although, his minor wounds from last night has pretty much vanished so. He would heal fast.

"Akira! Food's ready!"

Akira startled. Right. He was going to put some clothes on, wasn't he.

"Coming!" he replied and then stumbled back into the bathroom to find a band-aid for his finger. After that he ran to his room to get dressed at the speed of light.

 

\- - -

 

"Mr Asuka, the rate at which you are recovering is remarkable. Congratulations, you may already go home today."

Ryo nodded. This wasn't the first time he had heard that statement. He had always healed incredibly fast. He didn't think much of it, it was just a fact of his life. The doctor put the patient chart back into its holder by the bed.

"I'd actually like to use your results for a case study, if you'd allow me. I h-" He abruptly stopped speaking and stared blankly at nothing.

"Ah, Jenny."

"Sir."

Jenny's high heels clackled loudly against the tile floor. She turned her unblinking gaze and unchanging grin towards the doctor. Slowly he seemed to become aware again.

"What was I..." He looked at Ryo. "Ah, right, right, Mr Asuka. You are discharged today. Have a pleasant day."

"Thank you, doctor."

The doctor nodded and, with his eyes still a bit glazed over, exited the room. This, too, wasn't the first time Ryo had seen this happen. Another fact of life. Demons were real. His secretary had psychic powers. It came in handy at times like these, when people questioned his healing rate, or why he stole someone's motorcyle to chase a demon through the countryside.

Ryo grabbed his phone from the bedside table. Meanwhile Jenny packed up the bloodied clothes from the previous night. He had left his binder and shirt in the warehouse - nothing he couldn't easily replace though. A laughable sacrifice in exchange for awakening Akira's powers. Speaking of, Ryo opened the chatting app on his phone to message his best friend.

 

_**(TODAY)** _

_**'I'm being discharged early from the hospital. Come to my apartment instead.'** _

_**(13:44)** _

 

He put the phone aside and pulled fresh clothes from the bag Jenny handed to him. Jenny patiently helped Ryo up from the bed, out of the hospital gown and into the new clothing. She carefully put a simple wide t-shirt over his bandaged body. Then she helped him into a pair of comfortable sweat pants and slip-on shoes. Lastly, she guided his also bandaged arms into a long oversized cardigan. Ryo liked feeling warm and cozy okay.

He grabbed is phone from the nightstand.

"Thanks, Jenny."

"No problem."

They walked out.

 

\- - -

 

Akira's pocket vibrated as he balanced the dirty lunch dishes into the kitchen.

"Ah, that must be Ryo."

He put the dishes into the dishwasher and stepped aside to fish his phone out of his trousers.

"Huh."

Akira quickly texted Ryo back (' **got it. im omw** ') and slipped his phone back into his pocket.

"Everything okay?"

Mikki poked her head through the doorway. Akira looked up and 'mmh'ed in agreement.

"Yeah, no worries. Apparently Ryo is well enough to go home already."

"Oh, that's great news! I'm glad the injuries weren't that bad."

Another head joined Mikki's in the doorway - her twin sister, Miki. Though they they shared the same birthday, they didn't look identical as they were fraternal twins. Their personalities couldn't have been more different either. Mikki was the sweet, gentle type. Her kindess was her best trait. Meanwhile Miki was tough and often openly brash. An outspoken and loud girl. Akira saw them both as his own sisters since he pretty much grew up with them in the same household. Together with Taro, the little runt of the family, things could get a bit wild in the Makimura house. It wasn't bad though - it was a pleasant kind of lively.

Miki gave Akira a smarmy grin and waggled her eyebrows.

"Gonna go and continue your romantic weekend then, huh?"

"Wha-"

Well most of the time it was pleasant. Sometimes it could be annoying too.

"Miki, what are you talking about? He's my best friend, I didn't see him for two years -of course I want to hang out with him! As a friend. Because we're friends. Weirdo."

Miki cackled. "Yeah, yeah, you tell yourself that."

Mikki shook her head good-naturedly at her sister's antics. She turned back to Akira.

"Tell Ryo we said hi, yeah? And for him to get well soon."

"Will do." Akira smiled and passed the girls to exit the house. Thankfully he had left his overnight bag at Ryo's place so he didn't need to pack anything. He toed his sneakers on, grabbed his jacket and keys and opened the entrance door.

"Bye!"

"Have fun!"

"Enjoy yourself, lover boy!"

"Ugh." Akira left.

 

\- - -

 

"Oh, hello Miss Jenny."

Akira tried his hardest to look her in the eye and not, yknow. At her scandalously deep cleavage. He compromised by nervously averting his gaze to the left instead.

Jenny nodded and opened the door further to let Akira in. Akira toed of his shoes and hastily hung his jacket up. Jenny handed him a pair of house slippers and he bowed his head in thanks. And also to avoid having to look at her. It was rude to stare okay!

He escaped into the living room, where Ryo waited for him sprawled sideways over the couch.

"Hello, Akira."

Ryo leaned on his hand and inclined his head just so and batted his ridiculously long eyelashes at him.

Akira stopped in his tracks upon the sight.

"Uh..."

Akira blushed and inspected the house slippers he was wearing.

"Hey. You look...very... well."

He rubbed his neck and tried to will his flush away. This was his old buddy, best pal, no reason for his heart to beat faster. Yes, he was objectively beautiful but this wasn't news. Get it together!

Akira shook his head like a dog drying itself off to shake his rudy cheeks and quickening pulse away.

"Akira?" Ryo frowned in bemusement at his friend's odd behaviour.

"Yeah! I'm good!"

He stumbled into the lounging area and took a seat on a plush and comfortable looking armchair.

"I'm glad you're well enough to be back home."

Ryo raised his eyebrows but didn't question Akira's peculiar actions any further.

"So? How was your first night as devilman?"

Akira breathed out heavily. "Honestly? I barely feel any different, it's...weird, how normal I feel. Didn't you say demons were like, driven by pure instincts and violent urges? Did I do something wrong?"

Ryo sat up and gave his friend a deadpan look. "Akira. I saw you tear apart dozens of demons. You flew me to the hospital. I highly doubt completely human Akira could do this, unless you didn't tell me something."

"I...yeah. I guess you're right. I don't know, I just can't shake the feeling that im missing something."

Ryo leaned back and crossed his arms. "Missing something? Like what?"

It was Akira's turn to stare blankly at him. "If i knew, I wouldn't feel like I didn't know something, now would I?"

"Snarky today, aren't we."

Akira stuck out his tongue at him. Ryo snickered in response.

The loud Clack, Clack of high heels brought their attention to Jenny, who entered the living room to bring them a tray with juices and snacks. Akira wasn't sure where to look now. It felt like there were attractive people in every direction. Life was cruel like that.

"Thank you, Jenny. You may leave now if you like."

Jenny nodded at Ryo and left again, presumably to gather her things and go home. Ryo turned back to Akira and reached for a glass to pour some juice into it.

"Right, where were we?"

"Uh..."

Akira shrugged also leaned down for a drink. And promptly caught a glimpse down Ryo's wide shirt and at his chest. Or rather, his breasts. Round and soft looking. Right, that was a thing wasn't it. Ryo had breasts. That was kinda lost in the whole flying-Ryo-to-the-hospital deal.

"Woah!" Akira jumped back, almost falling out of the armchair. He blushed and spoke some jumbled undefinable words.

"Huh?" Ryo looked to where Akira was looking. Down his shirt.

"Oooh. Right. Yeah, I never told you did I? They didn't really develop until I left for the US. I'm intersex. Didn't really seem like the kinda topic to casually bring up on the playground, y'know."

"Oh."

"Is that going to be a problem?"

Ryo never thought much of his feminine chest. It just was. He did develop the habit of wearing a binder most of the time - not because he was ashamed, but because people generally acted all confused to see a man with a nice rack. It was annoying, so he hid his chest most of the time. Here however, in his home, he didn't bind them. He never cared much for bras either. They were inconvenient and uncomfortable. Free the titties and all that.

"No, no, of course not! It just caught me off guard! No problem here!"

Ryo squinted at his friend and grinned. "Aaah, I see. You're embarassed. You always were a boob guy weren't you."

"Ryo!"

Akira flushed further and grabbed the next best throw pillow to cover his face with. Ryo couldn't help the peal of laughter escaping his lips. Cute. Akira mumbled something into the cushion.

"What was that?" Akira raised the pillow from his face. His cheeks were a pretty cherry red. Ryo struggled to keep a neutral face. So cute.

"I SAID, shut up and drink your juice already, jerk."

Ryo snorted but complied and poured apple juice into both of their glasses. He picked one of them up and handed it to Akira, smirking all the way.

"Here you go."

  
Akira gave him an exaggerated pout and took a big gulp.

  
"Alright, alright, I'll stop teasing you already." Ryo picked his glass up and had a dainty sip of juice, pinky finger raised and all.  
Akira huffed.

  
They both set their glasses back on the table.

  
"Sooo...what now?" Akira scratched his cheek.

  
"Well we still need to have that slumber party you wanted last night, don't we?"  
Akira grinned. "Yeah!"  
Ryo couldn't help but grin back. "You in the mood for pizza?"

  
Akira's eyes seemed to sparkle. He 'uhn'ed energetically, quickly got up and fumbled his phone from his pants. "Any preferences?"

  
"Nah, just order whatever."

  
Akira smiled goofily at his friend and nodded. He dialed his favourite pizza place's number and raised his phone to his ear.

  
"Your Favourite Pizza Place, what can I do for you?"

  
"Yeah, hi, can I h-"

  
The deafening sound of the balcony windows breaking into a million pieces, followed by a screech and a tentacled humanoid...ish looking demon bursting into the living room.  
Akira dropped his phone in shock. The screen crackled. Damnit.

 

"Aw hell no, not this shit again."

Ryo quickly dug a gun from between the cushions and jumped up from the couch to aim at the monster.

  
"Again? this has happened before?"

Akira asked while he shifted into his more demonic form. Fluffy lower body with clawed feet, a wiry long tail with a bushy tip. Clawed hands, sharper teeth, headwings. Transformation complete. Akira had to repress the urge to strike a pose.

  
Ryo shot at the demon to keep it at bay. He yelled over all the noise.

"I'll tell you later Akira! Could you like? Do something?"

He waved his arm at the second demon, this one very slimey looking, joining their little party.

"I'd prefer to avoid another hospital visit on the same weekend."

  
"Shush, I got this. Stay back!"

  
Akira roared and charged at the demons. Seemed they had to pospone their slumber party yet again. Bummer that.


	3. 03

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize for the short update :/ i have so much planned for this fic in future chapters that i am struggling with the lead up to it. i promise the next chapter will be longer!!! 
> 
> if you wanna hang out with me, talk about fic suggestions or see my brainstorm process, come visit my tumblr nebulous-void :)   
> anyway i hope you enjoy!

"HUAH!"

Akira kicked the demon corpse off of the balcony railing. A dull thunk could be heard as it hit the grassy backyard of Ryo's apartment building.

"Jenny will deal with the disposal of the bodies." Ryo said joining Akira outside, lit cigarette between slender fingers. He blew a whispy cloud of smoke and took in the sight of his living room. Well, what was left of it. 

The couch was in shreds. The loveseat was turned over, with chunks of the cushion missing. The coffe table was broken in half and the cupboards were crushed. The walls and floor were painted poison yellow with demon blood.

Akira made a face. "Sorry about your living room, Ryo."

Ryo turned his head. "This? Don't be stupid. All of it can be easily replaced. Material possessions mean nothing when literal demons are attacking, Akira."   
He put the cigarette to his lips and took a drag. "Unfortunately, I believe we have to postpone our sleepover yet again though."   
He pointed at what was left of the sleep couch. "I'm afraid I don't have a guest room in this apartment, and I won't make you sleep on the floor."   
Ryo inclined his head in question. "Shall I give you a ride back or are you flying back to the Makimura's?"

Akira frowned and crossed his arms over his naked chest. "You really think I'd leave you alone tonight, when more demons could attack you any moment?" His wiry tail swished back and forth.

Ah. He was annoyed. Ryo covered his mouth with his free hand to hide a smile. Akira was always easy to read, but the tail made his emotional state even more obvious. It was cute. Everything about him was cute, really. His big doey eyes, his sweet smile, his fluffy hair, how he was slightly shorter than Ryo... Ryo's chest clenched at the thought. 

"Ryo? Are you listening?" 

Ryo was brought back from his smitten trance. He blushed, embarassed at being caught, and promptly tried to play it off with a long drag from his cigarette. "Sorry, could you repeat that?" He asked the broken window panel.

"I said," Akira's tail twitched. "Don't act all tough just because you know how to use a gun. I'm not leaving you unprotected. I'm staying and that's final." He widened his stance, and puffed out his chest.   
Ryo sighed and shook his head. "So stubborn." He flicked his cigarette carelessly off the balcony. It probably landed on the demon corpse. Good.

"Fine, have it your way, Fudo. Who am I to stop you from being my knight in shining furry armor?" He smirked. 

Akira 'tch'ed and rolled his eyes, then showed his pearly whites in a toothy grin. "You got it, your highness." He bowed mockingly. 

They exchanged a look, both snorted, and walked back inside, avoiding puddles of sticky blood as they went.

 

\- - -

 

"What do mean, sleep on the floor? Don't be ridiculous, we can totally both fit in your bed, Ryo!"

Ryo felt a headache come on. Truly, the universe was testing him. He tried rubbing the tension from his forehead. "I won't be able to talk you out of this either, will I?"

Akira pouted. "I won't make you sleep on your own bedroom floor! Your bed is big enough for the two of us. We did this all the time as kids! This is supposed to be a sleepover anyway." 

This was exhausting. Ryo let himself fall backwards onto the bed. Breath in. Breath out. Be zen. Akira sniffed and dropped onto the bed too. Ryo wobbled as Akira's movement jostled the bed. Ryo involuntarily slipped closer towards Akira due to the dip in the matress from both of their bodies. Zennnn....

Akira turned his head and laughed. "This is dumb. Why are we arguing about this?"

Ryo, having mostly succeeded in willing the tension away, snorted. "I don't know." He did actually know. It was because he was awfully in love with his best friend and being this close made his heart race, even if he managed to keep a straight (Hah!) face.   
Akira didn't know about that though. Obviously. He needed to give a plausible sounding answer. 

"I suppose getting agitated over something this trivial makes the whole demon threat seem less real."

Akira's expression turned serious. Shit, did he say the wrong thing? 

Akira put a reassuring hand on Ryo's arm. "Call me stupid but I have the gut feeling that it's all going to turn out okay." He gave him a sweet smile and nudged Ryo's leg with his knee.   
Oh, Akira. Bless him. Ryo nudged him back. "I do too, actually. I think we'll manage."

They gazed at one another in silence. Like they were in their own little safety bubble, and the outside world didn't exist. It was peaceful. Comfortable. Perfect, really.   
Well, almost perfect. Ryo had to resist the urge to shuffle closer to his friend. To, y'know. Cuddle. Or snuggle. Ryo felt his face grow warmer. Again. Fucking hell, since when was he this sensitive? He used to be so good at hiding his emotions. It was like he had unlocked his box of feelings and lost the key and now everything was trying to spill out.

Not even Akira, as oblivious as he could be, couldn't notice the blush appearing on Ryo's face. 

"You okay?" He put his hand on a warm cheek. "Geez, you're burning up! You're not getting sick, are you?" 

Ryo gently brushed the hand off with his own and sat up. "No, no, I'm fine, just tired. It's nothing." He intently inspected his bedroom wall to will his flush away. Huh, there was a bit of paint chipping off. 

Akira hummed and got up. "We did have a busy night. Sleepover time? You got any extra pillows?" He wiggled his eyebrows in a silly way and nodded in the direction of the bed. "It's gonna get extra cozy tonight." He grinned cheekily.  
Ryo sighed heavily and walked in the direction of the hallway closet. He knew Akira didn't mean anything by it but damn, it wasn't making things any easier on him. He pulled his phone out to get his mind away from his very, very gay thoughts. 

He sent Jenny a quick text, written in their usual code, just in case. ( 'I forgot to buy groceries, can you buy some? Don't forget the bio detergent.') He used all sorts of safety measures on all his electronic devices, but you could never be too careful. With all the morally questionable shit Ryo pulled on the regular, caution was the key to success. 

"Ryo? Did you get lost in your own apartment?" 

Akira's voice echoed through the hallway. Ryo let his phone sink back into his pocket and grabbed some extra pillows from the shelf. "Coming, coming." 

Ryo walked back to his bedroom and dropped them on the bed. He turned to Akira, then stopped mid-motion. "...are those bunny pattern pyjamas?" 

"You got something against my jimmy jammies, Ryo?"

Ryo looked away. "Uh. No. I just wasn't expecting it." Cute cute cute cute cute cute cute cute cute c - Ryo calmly put all the pillows into order as his mind raced. Thankfully he managed to keep his facial expression neutral this time. 

"Good, because I WILL physically fight you if you diss my awesome bunny jimjams." Akira sat heavily on the bed and made eye contact with Ryo. He was clearly joking around and damnit if his bantering didn't pull at Ryo's heart strings.

Ryo pushed Akira's dumb head with his hand and Akira laughed and let himself fall onto the bed again. "Doofus. You got a toothbrush with you or should I get one for you?" 

"Nah man, I came prepared." 

"Then you can head to the bathroom - I need to change into my pyjamas first."

Akira got up but didn't leave. He cocked his head in confusion. "Why do I need to leave so you can change? It's just us, and we've bathed together as kids?"   
Ryo raised his eyebrows and blinked his long lashes at Akira. "Oh really, Akira? You want to see my breasts that badly?" 

Akira visibly choked on his own spit and turned tomato red. You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. "What? No! I mean! Not that they're bad, just! I didn't- I mean- I forgot you had those!!" He quickly turned on his heel and grumbled under his breath. "Stupid..."

Ryo cackled loudly. Felt good to have the upper hand again. "Yes, yes, I'm just fucking with you. Go brush your teeth, my tit is itching and needs a good scratch."  
Akira head snapped back towards Ryo, expression bewildered. "Uh. Right."   
Ryo's howling laughter followed his ears as he power walked to the bathroom.

 

\- - -

 

Akira splashed cold water in his face. His blush was finally fading. Good god. Why was he getting so flustered over Ryo's chest anyway? It's not like he's never seen breasts before. Sure, he liked a nice rack like most guys but... frankly, even if Ryo had a flat, more masculine chest, Akira would like it, since it was Ryo. It was because he saw Ryo's naked torso, really. Akira hadn't paid attention to it as a kid, obviously, but man, Ryo was awfully attractive.

Hold up.

No no no no no, he was so not going there. Ryo was his best friend. He was not letting his stupid teenage bisexual urges make him sexualize Ryo. It felt wrong, like he needed to ask for permission before even thinking about it.   
Akira slapped his cheeks and the slap rang loudly on the bathroom tiles. 

"You okay there, buddy?"

Ryo leaned in the door frame, his arms and legs casually crossed, looking vaguelly amused, bemused and possibly also cemused.  
Akira grabbed a random towel and wiped his face with it. "Yeah, just thinking."

Ryo joined him at the sink and put some toothpaste on his toothbrush. Then he dunked it under the stream of water. 

"You still do that, huh?"

"Do what?" 

"Do the whole toothbrush thing in the wrong order."

"You're still on about that? We've been over this, Akira. MY way is the right way, you're the one doing it wrong. Why the hell would I make my toothbrush wet before putting the toothpaste on it?"

Akira was about to enthusiatically articulate his very much correct way of toothbrush usage, but Ryo stopped him with a dismissive move of his hand. Akira rolled his eyes and watched as Ryo brushed his teeth. Diligent, as usual. He then inspected the pyjamas Ryo was wearing more closely.  
They were shiny and soft looking, probably silk. Ryo had always been extra like that. It was a typical old fashioned button-up shirt and comfortable wide trousers, not unlike Akira's own pyjamas. Ryo's didn't have (superior) bunnies on it though, just blue stripes. Still, it suited him. 

Ryo spit out the excess toothpaste, rinsed out his mouth, washed his face and opened the cabinet to take out what Akira assumed were facial products. This was probably gonna take a while.

"I'll leave you to it then." Akira said.

"Mmh." Ryo hummed in acknowledgement without looking away from the mirror as he applied some fancy lotion or whatever to his face. Akira huffed and left. Better leave Ryo alone right now, he never liked when Akira hovered to watch him do his face routine. Which. Huh. Ryo has been doing that since they were, like, 12. Akira snorted. No wonder Ryo had such soft perfect skin. 

He was about to go to the bedroom when a noise from downstairs caught his attention. Akira tensed up. A demon again? He slowly crept down the stairs and sniffed around. Hm. He didn't catch any demon scent. Still. 

Akira tip-toed towards the living room. Suddenly, a crash. Akira startled and looked at the broken vase on the floor. A flicker caught in the corner of his eye. 

Oh.

His tail had appeared. Whoops. He must've knocked the vase over by accident. He sighed.  
Akira's gaze took a quick sweep through the living room. Nothing out of the ordinary. Well except for, y'know. All the broken furniture and demon blood. 

"Good evening."

"WOAH!" Akira jumped and almost fell flat on his ass. He managed to balance himself on the turned over remains of a couch. So much for demon super powers.

"Miss Jenny. I didn't know you came back."

"I was summoned to clean this up."

"Right. Sorry about that."

Jenny nodded, then took her phone out, presumably to call some additional help. This was not a one woman job. Who she could call for that at this hour, Akira had no clue. But Ryo and Jenny usually had their shady ways. Akira didn't want to think about it. 

"Everything alright?" 

Oh. Ryo must've heard the ruckus and come downstairs. "It's nothi-", Akira promptly interrupted himself with a high pitched screech. This time he did fall on his ass.

Ryo twitched, not expecting that all. "Really, Akira?" He snickered, but in a stiff way without moving his facial muscles much, to keep his face mask in place. It looked bizarre.

"Fucking hell, Ryo, don't just walk around in the dark wearing your weird face mask, it's creepy!" Akira puffed his cheeks up in exasperation and breathed out heavily. "Geez."

Ryo patted the top of Akira's fluffy hair in a taunting manner. He may have a crush on his friend but that didn't mean he was going to change his habits for him. Saturday night was aloe vera peel-off mask night. 

"The clean up team will be here soon."

Ryo raised his hand in an okay hand sign motion. "Excellent. Thank you, Jenny." 

He then reached his hand down towards Akira to help him up. It was an unnecessary gesture, Akira was strong enough to jump right up through the celing, but he still took Ryo's hand and let himself be pulled up. Ryo's hand was cool and soft against his.

"Bed time, you scaredy-cat?"

"Only if you take that hideous mask off first." 

They bumped shoulders and went back upstairs.


	4. 04

"Aw man, my phone screen cracked when I dropped it earlier. Dang it."

  
Akira pouted while tracing the cracks with the tip of his finger. He blew a raspberry in annoyance and put his phone aside.  
He turned his head to the right. He and Ryo were both sitting up in the bed, a pile of pillows propped up behind their backs. They had both just gotten comfortable under the covers - Ryo's face was thankfully beauty mask free now. His skin was almost glowing, it looked so soft. Akira had to hold back from trying to feel for himself. He lied down and pressed himself into the mattress.

  
Ryo put his notebook aside. "Relax, I can just buy you a new one."

  
"Hah? You can't just buy me a new phone, Ryo, that's expensive as hell."

  
Ryo slid under the covers, lied down in a sideways position and leaned his head against his fist. He gave his friend A Look. "Akira. I'm filthy rich. I appreciate you not wanting to take advantage of that, but I can afford to buy you a new phone no problem. Besides. You need a working phone so we can stay in contact while demon hunting."

  
Akira grabbed his phone from the nightstand and fiddled around with it. "But like, I mean... can't we just have the screen fixed? It still works just fine."

  
Ryo side-eyed him. "Akira, I know for a fact that that phone model is 5 years old and runs slow as fuck. Honestly I'm surprised you still manage to charge the battery enought to use it for an entire day."

  
"It's fine as long as I just use it for texts and calls." Akira said defensively.

  
Ryo rolled his eyes. "Right." But he saw how Akira's brows furrowed. This wasn't about the phone, not really. "Is it because your parents got you that phone?"

  
Akira exhaled heavily. "...Maybe." His eyes shifted to the side, like he was embarrassed.

  
"Akira, even I know some tact-"

  
"You do?"

  
"Ha ha. Yes. I'm not gonna make fun of you for that. You don't get to see them often, of course you cherish their gifts. It's sweet."

  
Akira gave him a grateful smile and nudged his shoulder. Ryo mirrored his expression.

  
"How about this: I find a guy that puts the latest smartphone INSIDE your phone's casing - You can keep your parents' phone but it will actually be functional again. Would that work?"

  
Akira tried to hug him while lying down. It was a bit awkward, with one of his arms smushed between their bodies, but he managed to envelop Ryo with his other arm and nuzzle his neck gratefully. "Yeah, that's perfect. Thanks, man."

  
Hoo boy, Ryo's skin was even softer than he expected. As Velvet. His body, however, seemed weirdly rigid - like he turned into a marble statue. Akira looked up.

  
"You okay?"

  
"Huh? What? Yeah, yeah, I gotchu boo. Bro! I mean bro. Dude bro."

  
Akira snorted. He couldn't see Ryo's face from this angle but he knew when his friend was flustered. "Right." Probably just Ryo's Not Used To Lots Of Physical Contact Thing again, so Akira wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.  
He put his head back into the spot where Ryo's neck and shoulder met. This was actually super cozy... he exhaled a relaxed breath and shuffled to get more comfortable.  
Neither of them said anything for a while. The tension in Ryo's body slowly melted away. So his crush was bro cuddling him. Big deal. He'll get over it. Some day.

  
Would he really though?  
Sometimes it felt like he had been in love with Akira since forever. Like his affection for him was eternal. Like there were almost-memories of ...something on the tip of his tongue.  
Did other people have this too? Or was Ryo just a freak?

  
"...Akira?"

  
Ryo whispered. He didn't want to disturb the peaceful quiet in the dark room.

  
"Mh..."

  
"You falling asleep on me?"

  
"Mh."

 

"...nevermind then. Good night, Akira."  
"Nh, you too."

  
Ryo leaned his head on Akira's and tried to fall asleep too.

 

 

\- - -

 

 

Everything was white. Pure white light. The endless beyond, above, beneath and beside him.  
He had dreamt of this place before, but so far he had never gotten to inspect it further. Usually he just caught a glimpse of it, an impression of a feeling, and then he'd wake up.

  
Not this time it seemed - He gazed at the nothing, or maybe something, in front of him.

  
All light met in this place, or so it felt to him. It should be blinding, maybe too hot, but it wasn't so. The whiteness wasn't the startling white of sunlight hitting freshly fallen snow - it was more like there was a dimmer placed all over it. Not visibly, everything did look white white white. But it didn't hurt his eyes or make him want to squint.

  
The area permeated a familiar, pleasant smell that he couldn't place.

  
He touched his arm in thought and noticed he was naked. He hadn't even realized until then, he felt perfectly warm, as if he was submerged in a relaxing bath with just the right temperature.

  
There was a distant melody coming from no particular direction. It didn't sound like human music - it was this layer upon layer of harmonic sounds. It sounded like. Peace. Acceptance. Like everything was going to be okay. The void was singing.

  
Now that he inspected the vast blank space, he noticed that patches were actually covered in fog that got thicker whenever he tried to focus on it - perhaps there actually was an end to this place? He inspected the fog, tried touching it gently with the tip of his finger, at shifted into thing square pieces and sparkles, like reality itself was shifting.

  
He walked forward, not urgently so, but curious about where ever he was right now. Somehow he knew he didn't need to be scared here. He wasn't in any danger.  
He slowly placed one foot in front of the other. As he observed his own movement, he saw small wings sprout from his ankles.

  
Huh. In his surprise, the wings twitched as well. How interesting. They were a pure white, so much so they seemed to glow. Or maybe they really did.  
Ryo spread all his other wings.

  
Wait. More wings? He looked to the side and saw some of his back wings and a glimpse of his headwing. Right. How could he forget? Ryo always has had wings.  
Ryo rose into the sky, and it felt like the song of the void soared with him.  
He drifted between the mist, flying higher and higher, trying to see if there was an end to this. He looked up but all he could recognize was not-quite-clouds. They sparkled too much, like fresh soapy foam. Whenever he flew through one, he could swear he heard them chime.

  
And then there was a whisper in his ear. Or was it a call? It was. A Request, in a very soft voice, so soft he couldn't decipher what the words were.  
Out of the corner of his eye, something black. It instantly grabbed his attention - how could it not? Its dark shape was dramatic against the glowing white backdrop. He could distinctly make out two big wings, moving in tandem.

  
Ryo glid through the not-sky of the white space, flapping his many wings every so often. Again, a whisper in his ear. Again, he didn't understand.  
The black Something was getting closer. Not just because Ryo was flying towards it, but because it seemed to move in his direction as well.  
The harmonic sounds doubled in layers. Not uncomfortably so, just noticably.  
They both floated downwards towards the not-floor of the void. They both stretched, then hid their wings. Ryo walked closer, reached out with his hand, his fingers almost touching.

  
"Akira?"

  
"Ryo?"

  
A hand, broader than his, pressed against his own. Akira slotted his fingers between his in a firm hold. Like he wanted to make sure Ryo was really in front of him.

 

 

Ryo felt a tingly warm spark shoot up his arm.  
And down his spine. And through everything. Light spilled out from inbetween their clasped fingers, slowly at first, followed by an enormous burst that filled the already white vastness with even more light. Ryo couldn't see Akira anymore. He couldn't even see himself.  
But he still felt Akira's palm against his. He squeezed his fingers, and Akira squeezed back.

  
He knew there was nothing to be afraid of, still. He just knew. So he gradually slipped his slim fingers from Akira's.

  
Now everything was entirely white white white, no mist or clouds or squares, just solid whiteness, and Ryo drifted and drifted until he lost awareness of himself, until he didn't dream anymore, so deep was his slumber.

 

 

\- - -

 

 

Someone was humming next to him. Ryo burried himself deeper into the duvet. He was almost lulled back into sleep when it occured to him - there usually was not humming in his morning routine.  
Ryo sat up quickly, his sleepy mind still hazy and now also dizzy from the abrupt motion. Who dared disturb his slumber?

  
"Woah!"

  
The humming had stopped. Ryo squinted his eyes. As his vision unblurred, the past evening slowly returned to him. Right. Sleepover with Akira.

  
"Uh... good morning?"

  
Akira in his bed. Akira in his... dream? He was too tired to think right now. Ryo let himself fall backwards into the pillows and snuggled back into the duvet.

  
"...or not."

  
"Akira, stop talking."

  
"...Ryo-"

  
"Akira, I WILL shoot you."

  
"it's almost noon come on."

  
"Akira, death."

  
"Get uuuuuuuuup! Get up, get up, get up, get up!"

  
Was Akira really physically shaking him right now? Him, the morning monster of rage? There was no love strong enough to contain the anger he feels upon being forced to wake up.

  
"AAAH!"

  
Ryo tackled Akira, duvet in tow. They tussled around and crash landed on the floor, tangled up in each other. Akira blinked wide eyed at Ryo on top of him and laughed.

  
"Hah, got you to get up!"

  
"Asshole."

  
They grinned at each other like the pair of idiots they were. And then Ryo noticed just how close he was to Akira. Literally straddling him, with his forearms on either side of Akira's head. He could see the flecks of different browns in Akira's eyes like this...  
Ryo startled when Akira softly brushed his finger under his eye.

  
"Your eyelashes are so long, it's unreal..." Akira seemed a bit dazed.

  
Ryo felt the heat rush to his face and scrambled off of Akira at lightspeed.

  
"...Hah, thanks."

  
Akira also stood up and rubbed his neck. "Sooo...uh, did you sleep well?"

  
"I did."

  
Ryo was vehemently not making eye contact as he picked up the duvet and made the bed sloppily. He sat on top of it and, ignoring his still heated cheeks, tried to continue Akira's meager attempt at a casual conversation topic to get over... whatever that was just now.

  
"Had any booby dreams?"

  
Akira rolled his eyes. "No, Ryo, I did not have any booby dreams. Wait, although... I did have a dream that you appeared, and you have boobs so. Does that count?"

  
Akira sat cross legged opposite of Ryo and tapped his finger against his mouth in question. Ryo frowned. His answer made Ryo feel things. What, he didn't know. His own dream came to mind. Ryo leaned against the bedpost in thought and crossed his ankles. He didn't want to make any assumptions, that would be ridiculous, it was probably just coincedence, but...

  
"What kind of dream was it?"

  
"Hm?" Akira stopped tapping. "Oh. Well I was in this weird white space thing, like, it was just white everywhere, no end in sight, no ceiling and shit. And I could turn into my Devilman form so I tried to fly to the exit, but there was none - and then I found you. And uh... Dude, don't get this the wrong way, but you were naked. It wasn't a sexy dream!"

  
Akira stumbled over his words. "Wait, not that you aren't sexy - not the point! Anyway, you had like, tons of wings, like a dozen or some shit. And then we touched hands and the dream ended."  
He scratched his cheek and smiled in a self-depreciating manner. "Dumb dream right?"

  
No answer.

  
"Ryo?"

  
"No... no, that's not dumb."

  
Ryo looked shellshocked - his earlier blush was gone. He was biting his nails, eyes frowning in thought. Akira bypassed Ryo's nervously shaking leg as he crawled closer to him on all fours.

  
"Ryo? Did I say something wrong?" Akira pulled Ryo's hand from his mouth and held the flat of it with his own. Ryo exhaled heavily.

  
"No, it's just... Akira, I had the exact same dream. Just, you know, from my perspective. I was in that white place, I had wings, I was flying, I found you... I touched your hand and... then the dream ended."  
His eyes searched Akira's. "The fuck's going on? That's not normal right? I certainly haven't heard of shared dreams before."

  
"Oh." Akira didn't drop Ryo's hand, but he did rub his other hand over his face to calm his jumbled thoughts.

  
"Then again... we ARE fighting demons. Psychic powers are real. Fuck it, sure, why not also some weird shared dreamscape?" Ryo laughed.

  
Akira felt the whiplash from Ryo's drastic change of view on the topic. He couldn't make sense of any of this. He ignored Ryo's laughter - his friend tended to laugh at inappropriate times. Part of being a jackass, he guessed.

  
"It feels like... like we got a puzzle piece, but there's too many missing to understand the big picture. You get what I mean?"

  
Ryo sighed. All the myrth from his face was gone. "...yes, I do. Not much we can do now, can we? You know I hate being out of the loop, but..." He sighed once more. "Best we can do for now is wait for any more clues on this."

  
He scoffed. "Fucking annoying."

  
Akira rubbed his face with both of his hands and whined. "Ugh, yeah."

  
Ryo got up and rolled his shoulders. He lightly kicked Akira in the back. "We should go demon hunting. You were in your Devilman form in the dream, so that might help. Now get up, let's get ready and go."

  
Akira barely budged at the kick - with the amount of strength he held in his body, that might as well have been the brush of a butterfly wing.

  
He tugged at Ryo's sideburn as he passed by him. "You got it, boss."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"Wowww Ryo, nice cooking skills."

  
Akira rubbed his hair with a towel as he walked in. He had borrowed Ryo's clothes after showering - the shirt was fine, he was just half a head shorter than Ryo, so it was just a tad too long on him. But man, those harem pants felt weird. Not uncomfortable just... different. Weird.

  
"Ha fucking ha. Sit your ass down, will you?"

  
Akira put the towel around his neck and took a seat at the dining table. Today's elaborate breakfast was: cornflakes. He stiffled his chuckles behind his hand.  
Meanwhile Ryo lit a cigarette after taking a sip from his coffee.

  
"Ugh, really Ryo, indoors?"

  
Ryo blew out a smoke cloud. "The fuck does it matter now?" He nodded towards what was left of the balcony. "There's literally a giant hole in my living room wall, genius."

  
Jenny's night time clean up crew had disposed of all the blood and ruined furniture, but even they couldn't just start building a new wall at 4am.

  
Akira munched on a spoonful of cornflakes with gusto and made a vague "Alright, fair enough" sound.

  
They both enjoyed their incredibly healthy and nutritious breakfasts. The sound of traffic acted as their background music. It was nice, almost domestic.  
Ryo stubbed his cigarette out and got up.

"I'm gonna go shower too, and then we can go demon hunting. Apparently there's been some spooky scary activities in that, y'know, that forest nearby, whatever the fuck it was called." Ryo flapped his hand in dismissal.

  
Akira set the bowl down after drinking the leftover milk from it. "Mhkay, take your time dude."

  
Akira scratched his stomach idly. Ryo was probably gonna use like six shower gels or some shit so this was gonna take a while. Hm. What to do, what to do...  
He got up and put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Might as well be a good guest and tidy up. Especially after ruining the entire living room. He went back to grab the cornflakes package and milk. He had just put the milk away into the fridge when a screech from upstairs made him jump.

  
Was that Ryo screaming? Was another demon attacking??

  
Akira sprinted up the stairs, two steps at a time, and careened himself into the unlocked bathroom. The door hit the wall with a loud thud.

  
"Ryo?!"

  
Akira looked around but there was no demonic abomination in sight. Only Ryo, naked and afraid, staring intendly at his wrist while sitting on the bathroom floor opposite of the mirror.  
Akira scittered to a halt. He quickly grabbed a towel, dropped to his knees next to Ryo and covered him with the towel, because damn it he didn't want to oggle his friend but it was bound to happen. He was blessed and cursed with a ridiculously hot friend.

  
"Uh, Ryo? What's up? You scared me."

  
Ryo grabbed Akira's arm and hold one of his wrists up to Akira's face.

  
"Akira. Look at this. There's a thing on my arm." He let go of Akira and showed his other wrist. "And here too." He stretched his legs out and turned them. "And on my ankles." He pushed the towel off his shoulders and showed Akira his back. "AND a shit ton on my back."

  
He looked intensely into Akira's eyes. "It's wing marks. Or scars. Whatever the fuck. Akira, those are the exact same spots where my wings were in my dream."

  
Akira was gaping at him. He gingerly traced one of the marks on Ryo's wrist. "...it doesn't look injured. Does it hurt?"

  
"Nah. But I never had these. They must've appeared after that dream. Sorry I yelled like that but." Ryo laughed. It didn't really sound like he was amused. "I didn't expect that is all."

 

Akira wasn't sure what to say. He bit his lip, trying to figure out how to proceed. 

 

"Well, it's whatever. Did you want to watch me shower or what?" 

 

Akira looked up. Ryo had thankfully wrapped himself up in the towel as he got up. Still, this was more of his skin on display than he was used to. He felt his heart rate speed up. "Oh piss off, will you." 

 Before Akira left the bathroom, he turned back once more.

 

"Seriously though, are you okay?"

 

Ryo's faked smirk fell. Akira always saw through him. "...I don't know."

 

"Ryo, I'll wait for you to finish showering in the hallway, yeah? And I meant what I said at the Sabbath - it's gonna be okay as long as you and me stay together. Promise."

 

"Yeah." 

 

Akira closed the door behind himself, leaving Ryo to his own thoughts.

 

 

\- - -

 

 Ryo let the hot water calm his nerves. Things hadn't been normal since he became aware of the demons roaming around, but this weekend had hit a whole new level of strange. He traced his wrist mark in thought. Did he pick the right choice by dragging Akira into this? 

 

But then again, what if a demon attacked and Akira couldn't defend himself the way he could now, after becoming Devilman? 

 

Ryo huffed. The day had barely begun and he already felt like shit. Marvelous. What he needed was a distraction. He was gonna focus on demon hunting for now - ignore his wing marks, until, undoubtedly, some new bizarre puzzle piece would be dropped in their laps. 

 

 

\- - -

 

 

Akira tapped his fingers against the floor. He had sat down next to the bathroom door, leaning against the wall. He still felt on edge after... well, this entire weekend to be honest. So much happened at once.

 

Demons randomly attacked humans, apparently. And Ryo had real life proof of their shared dream... Akira didn't know what to make of all this. What he did know however was that he couldn't and didn't want to leave his friend alone right now. He knew Ryo acted all aloof a lot, laughed things off and acted tough, hid his true emotions. But Akira had always felt liek he understood Ryo on a deeper level, he could always tell when Ryo was actually scared or sad, like he'd known him since forever. 

 

Akira wanted to give Mikki a call to let her know he'd stay at Ryo's for longer, but since his stupid phone screen cracked the display had blacked out entirely. He would have to wait for Ryo to come out and ask him for his phone. 

 

Akira had almost dozed off when Ryo opened the bathroom door, making him jump to attention. He got up and inspected Ryo's expression - he seemed more relaxed and determined.

Good. He was glad Ryo felt a bit better now. 

 

Ryo had dressed in a tied blouse and wide cargo pants with many , many pockets, to stow his weapons in there no doubt. On top of that he wore his usual fanny pack. How many pockets could one guy possibly need? And Akira knew for a fact there where half a dozen hidden pockets in Ryo's favoured trench coat too. Akira innerly shook his head, though not maliciously so. It was honestly kinda cute. 

But back to the task at hand.

 

"Yo, Ryo, can I borrow your phone a sec? I wanna give Mikki a call."

 

Ryo made to follow him and they both walked back downstairs. He grabbed his phone from the dining table. 

 

"Sure, but what for?"

 

"Uh, well. I mean only if it's okay with you, but. I was gonna stay here for a while longer? I'm worried with all the shit that's been going on."

 

Ryo's chest clenched. God, Akira was a sweetie. Terrible. He handed Akira his phone and walked to the coffee machine. 

 

"Sure, go for it."

 

"Thanks." 

 

Ryo poured himself a lukewarm cup of coffee while Akira dialed Mikki's number. 

 

"Yeah, hey Mikki, it's me, Akira. Yeah, my phone broke so I'm calling from Ryo's phone. No, no, I'm fine, we're both fine."

 

Ryo hopped on top of the kitchen counter and thumped his feet lightly against it. He took a long sip from his coffee - it was hardly a delicasy when luke-warm but honestly he had stopped being picky about that long ago.

 

"Ye- yes, Mikki. No. Yes, yes, yeah okay." 

 

Ryo's snort made his coffee froth up. Gross. 

 

"ANYWAY. Listen Mikki, he's not feeling so well, so I'll be staying here for longer than I said before. Yeah. Yes. Yes."

 

Akira gave Ryo a look that said 'Well, what can you do, am I right?' and Ryo snorted again. 

 

"Okay bye, yeah, you too. Yeah bye, bye!!" Akira's face spelled fond exasperation as he pressed the 'end call' button. 

 

"Your mommy worrying about you, huh?" 

 

Akira rolled his eyes and joined Ryo in the kitchen. He leaned against the counter with his elbows on it, next to Ryo. 

 

"Shut up. She was worried something happened to you again actually."

 

"Oh." 

 

Ryo chugged the last of his coffee and hopped off the counter.

"Wanna drop by the Makimura's later so you can pick up some more clothes? I mean, you're welcome to wear my stuff all you like." 

 

Akira followed Ryo to the shoe rack. "Nah man, no offense, this looks great on you, but I feel kinda off in it. Too much leg room, I don't know what to fucking do with it." He shook his harem pants-clad legs. 

 

Ryo snickered and finished tying his boots and grabbed his trench coat. Akira did the same.

 

"Alright, just let me grab some weaponry and I'm ready to go." 

 

Akira gave him a big toothy grin and a thumbs up. He was so ready, he could already feel the thrill of a good fight itching under his skin. 

 

Ryo returned, his pockets looking stuffed. "Ready?"

 

"Hell yeah."

 

A good demon hunt would do the both of them good. Distract them a bit, rid earth of one danger at a time, maybe even find some more clues on that weird white void dream and the wing marks. 

 

They both exited the apartment. 

 

Neither of them noticed the figure in the destroyed balcony fading away. 

 

 


	5. 05

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize for the delay - my metal health goblins have been torturing me lately, thus making writing a real ordeal.  
> i cut this chapter in two, so there should be another new chapter soon! it just felt more right like this. 
> 
> reminder that this is a fix-it in a roundabout way: ive unraveled nagais devilman sweater starting at the end of og dm, and im reknitting dml as i please to make it less fucked up. so really, you dont have to have read dml for this, im doing my own thing, i arrogantly call it nebu canon. my city now.
> 
> anyway, i hope you enjoy this chapter and uhhh comments make my mind goblins weaker so i can write more!!

 

"I'll be real quick, be right back!" 

 

Akira exited the car and jogged to the Makimura house. He and Ryo had dropped Akira's phone off at Ryo's convenient tech aquaintance earlier - it should be done by the time they returned from their camping trip. He took out his phone and texted the guy, just to make sure he did it the way they had discussed. He wanted to please Akira with it, after all. Ah, and their trip would be the perfect time to have his destroyed living room and balcony fixed up. He had already given Jenny instructions, but now was as good a time as any to take a look at some new couch models, maybe send Jenny to have new furniture be picked up while they were gone... Ryo opened the first search result for 'banger couches'.

 

"Oho, you must be Ryo then, huh?"

Ryo startled, dropping his phone. It thudded clumsily against the pedals.

Both of the Makimura twins were looking at him through the opened window. Of course, Akira had told him about them, but he hadn't gotten to meet them yet. Frankly he had wanted to keep it that way. Mikki was giving him a polite smile. Meanwhile Miki looked like the cat that just caught the canary.

"Uh. Hello."

He wasn't really sure how to act. Usually he had time to prepare himself and put on his mask of politeness. Right now however Ryo felt caught off guard. He could see Akira make an apologetic face from behind the girls. He had changed clothes, wearing his usual black turtleneck sweater and jeans now. Ryo huffed and made to open the car door. Might as well get this over with fast.

Mikki nodded her head in greeting. "So you're the famous Ryo - Akira has told us so much about you!"

Ryo raised his eyebrows. "Oh has he now?" 

Miki skipped closer, putting her arm around her sister's shoulder. "Yup! Always 'Ryo did this, Ryo said that...' It's cute." Her smile turned smarmy for a split second. "Anyway, I'm Miki, this is Mikki. Though I'm sure Akira told you about us too." She looked over to Akira who had shuffled over to Ryo. "I'd be offended if he didn't."

Akira rolled his eyes. "Of course I told him about you. You terrorize me every day." 

Miki just smirked. "Weak, Fud- Ow!" Mikki flicked her fingers against Miki's forehead. "It's nice to finally meet you, Ryo. Akira's staying over with you for now, right? I'm glad to see you got well so quickly! You guys make sure you don't get in any new trouble!" 

"Thank you, but I won't make any promises." Ryo smiled. "Akira, ready to go?" 

"Yeah, all good. Alright guys, see you later, I'll keep you updated!" Akira waved at the girls and entered the car. 

"Bye! Have fun camping!" 

"Remember to wear protection!"

Ryo flushed in surprise. Akira, being used to Miki's antics, just yelled. "Piss off!" 

He got a hearty cackle as a reply. Well, if Akira wasn't gonna make a big deal out of it, neither was Ryo. He pretended like his face wasn't burning as he fished his phone from between the pedals. 

He rolled his window up, and they drove off.

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"Mind if I turn some music on?"

  
"Nah man, go ahead."

  
Ryo pushed a couple of buttons on his fancy console, and a funky 80s synth beat filled the air. Akira watched Ryo absendmindedly tap his fingers to the rhythm against the steering wheel. Ryo didn't really seem to be in a talkative mood at the moment, so Akira let him be and gazed at the changing scenery outside - they had finally left the urban area and were now driving down a clearway. Akira watched the trees swish by them in a steady manner.

 

All of this felt so...abnormaly normal. Like it used to go differently. When though, and in what context, Akira didn't know. It was like the sense of deja vu, mixed with a pinch of 'except this time it's not like that'. An odd feeling he couldn't shake.

  
This weekend had gone by so fast, so many things happened in quick succession, he barely had time to get used to his new powers and they were already on their first more or less official demon hunt - and yet Akira felt like he had these supernatural powers since forever. As if he had just stored it away in a box under his bed and had finally decided to open it again.

  
To be honest he didn't feel any of those supposed demonic urges Ryo had warned him about. No insatiable hunger, neither for flesh nor for violence. And there was no evil demon spirit whispering sin in his ear either.  
All of this should have been good news, and it wasn't like Akira WANTED to have more problems with his new devilman status. However, there was the constant nagging thought of him having forgotten some vital information.

  
Akira huffed in annoyance. He wasn't getting anywhere with this. Ryo was right - a demon hunt was their best shot and getting some new information, maybe have another bizarre mystery puzzle piece be dropped in their laps.

 

The song changed and a slower, more subdued melody played. Ryo took a turn onto some obscure country road, but Akira wasn't about to question him. Ryo usually knew what to do, he did his extensive research, so he probably was taking the most efficient way to their destination. A small smile graced Akira's lips when Ryo began to hum along to the song.

  
Akira focused on the grassy planes outside his passenger window. Bush, tree, tree, bird, tree, tree, graaaaaaaaaaaaaass, tree, bush, tree. Akira was starting to feel drowsy, the soft background music and light rocking of the car easing him into a heavy-eyed trance. Before he knew it, he had dozed off.

 

 

\- - -

 

 

He felt... bad. Numb, weary, bitter, broken.

  
A feeling of resigned indifference embraced him like a cruel lover. Akira walked through the darkness, because really, what else was there to do? Sure, he could just stay in the darkness, but whatever will left to live inside of him had remained urged him to keep moving.

  
Black curtains opened before him, revealing a grotesque stage play of nightmares. Akira didn't even feel horrified anymore. No, it was like he was... used to it at this point. This was existence now.  
Dozens of naked people were running desperately from a monstrous demon that already had half of a man dangling from between its teeth in its giant maw. Screams and howls and cries echoed from every direction.

Akira didn't care. He didn't step in. What was the point? They were all trapped here anyway, and they had been judged as eternal sinners. Death wasn't an option anymore. They had all been left behind.

He blinked, and the scene changed. 

 

He was standing in a library, behind a boy, looking at the book in the boy's hands, over his shoulder. Akira tried to step closer, but the boy turned and walked right... right through him. Like he was made of air. His heart was icy, yes, but he could still feel dread grip him by the neck. What was this? He tried to speak up, but no one responded to him. No one could hear him, or see him, or touch him. And yet he caught his own reflection in the window somehow. So he did still exist. Right?

Or was it? It must've been, it moved just as he moved, but... it looked like a different Akira. Taller, more built, his face grim and showing years of terror. He reached out, to touch the surface of the window, and his reflection did so as well, and the world around him changed yet again.

 

Akira was gazing upwards, at the remains of crumbling skyscrappers. No, he was watching something standing on top of the ruins. He could barely make it out, something sparkling and glowing, a something that was now flying into the distant horizon. He felt... heartbroken. Hopeless. Betrayed. Akira dug his fingernails into his clenched fists. Rage bubbled up his throat, up up up, until he roared, fire spilling from his chapped lips.

The flames spread in a wide fan, filling his vision, until all he could see was red. 

Akira closed his mouth, and the fire parted, and then he saw. He saw a severed head, on a pike, waving back and forth, with blood and ichor still dripping from it. Whose head it was, he couldn't tell, all he could make out was dark brown hair, but still Akira was struck with grief as if he had been struck by a sledgehammer. He felt like he was being torn in two, like he himself was splitting apart. He heard a voice inside his head, distinctly not his own, a grovely deep thing, that seemed to howl along with him in pain and sorrow.

His heart, his head, they hurt so much, he was trembling, they were trembling, screaming - 

 

"AKIRA!"

 

Sweat glistening on his forehead, Akira tried to catch his panicked breath. He caught Ryo's gaze as he wiped his brow, and raised his hand in the 'give me a moment' motion, not ready to talk yet. 

Akira clutched his chest and hung his head and focused on slowing his racing heart. 

 

"...Akira?" Ryo hovered next to him, not sure if touching him was a good idea right now. Concern was clearly etched into his face. 

 

Akira felt like he was slowly coming to, and he noticed - were they not driving anymore? He looked out the windshield and indeed, they were not. He must've really made a fuss while asleep for Ryo to stop the car. Damn. He sat up straight and let his breath out leave his lungs in a rush. "I'm good now. Sorry. I just..." 

For a moment Akira struggled to recollect what had gotten him so worked up in the first place. Horror, horror, endless horror and so much pain. He leaned into Ryo's outstreched hovering hand so it made contact with his arm, to ground himself. Ryo caught the hint and applied his hand more firmly, holding onto him. 

 

"I had a dream. More like a nightmare, really." 

 

For the next short while Akira did his best to describe what he had seen and felt to Ryo, having to take breaks inbetween when a fresh rush of grief hit him again. Ryo listened attentively, and by the end tears pricked in the corner of his eyes. 

Telling Ryo about his dream both helped him memorize it better, and calm him down a bit. It felt cathartic to speak about it out loud. For Ryo on the other hand it seemed to have the exact opposite effect. He was visibly sweating with anxiety, fiddling with his hands restlessly and biting his lips. 

"I'm so sorry Akira."

Akira made sure to give Ryo a reassuring, though weak smile. He felt emotionally exhausted. "It's not like it's your fault I had some weird ass dream, Ryo. No need to apologize." 

 

Ryo averted his gaze and nervously scratched his forearm. "I feel like it is though. I'm the one that dragged you into all this. Clearly all the stress is getting to you. I'm sorry. Ungh-!" 

Akira pinched Ryo's nose, causing Ryo to make a funny face. Akira snickered under his breath. 

 

"Don't be stupid. I decided to come with you; you didn't force me to." He let go of Ryo's nose and gave it a parting boop with his finger for good measure. "I'll get over it." 

Akira sat up straight in his seat and reapplied his seatbelt. "Now, weren't we going somewhere?" His grin showed off his fangs. 

 

Ryo gave him an assessing look, no doubt trying to see if Akira really was okay now. After a moment he nodded and started the car again. 

 

 

 


	6. 06

They exited the car, Ryo having parked it on the camp's assigned parking lot. He waved his arms around enthusiastically as he explained the mystery surrounding Camp Saru while they made their way to the main camping area within the forest.

 

"... no one has been seriously injured yet, but there have been cases of people getting mysterious scratches, items disappearing and vague shapes being seen in the forest at night time. It's certainly no man-eating tentacle monster from those rumours alone, but it's the best lead we got right now."

Akira hitched his duffelbag higher over his shoulder. "Sounds easy enough."

 

As they walked deeper into the woods, the air got cooler, the trees providing shade. The air smelt like pine trees and earth. Akira felt himself relax, the earlier nightmare forgotten for the moment. He had always been fond of nature, just like Ryo. It's what they had first bonded over as children, both being more attracted to the peaceful wilderness than whatever latest gadget the other kids fawned over on the playground.

 

Ryo led the way to the main campground. The path they had taken had led them through the forest, and the campsite was only about a 15 minute walk into the woods, to avoid noise pollution. It was positioned right next to the local lake and framed by woodlands from all sides.  
Akira followed Ryo to the main facility which stood at the forefront. Behind it there were small rentable cabins, both between the trees and right next to the lake, with barbeque and camp fire spots inbetween.

He nodded in greeting to the woman Ryo was currently talking to at the reception desk.

 

"Mr Asuka?"  
"Yes, that's me."  
"Great, great, your assistant has informed us of your circumstances, your filming permission has been granted; however you will have to ask our camp guests yourself, I'm sure you understand."  
"Yes, of course. We will make sure to only film with consent."

 

Akira inclined his head in confusion. Filming? Just what did Jenny tell the camp staff they were doing? Even so, Akira stayed quiet for now. There was no need to blow their cover, he could ask Ryo once they were alone.

  
"Excellent. Then here are your keys, sir. The canteen opening times can be viewed on the bulletin board to your right."

The woman pointed at a board covered in papers, including one with a shaky photo of a grey blob between trees.  
Akira stepped closer to inspect it, interest piqued. The photo depicted an upwards shot of trees, the local woods Akira assumed, with a blurry Something caught mid-motion. Really, it looked like a smear of dirt more than anything.  
Ryo joined his side and bumped his shoulder.

"See anything interesting?"  
"Look."

  
Ryo looked at the photo and hummed in thought. His eyes then moved to the left, where another photo was pinned. A dog, sitting with his tongue lolling out next to a camp fire. It seemed to be some sort of pitbull breed, with a reddish-yellow coat. Akira saw Ryo's eyes light up.

 

"I see you've found interest in our local celebrity."

They both turned and looked at the woman from before who was smiling in mild amusement.

  
"Celebrity?"  
"Yes, he's sort of like the camp's mascot. Someone abandoned him in the woods about hm... a year ago maybe? Oh, don't worry though, we feed him and he loves greeting the camp guests." She assured the boys when their expressions turned sour.  
"He roams the woods freely, but he never strays too far. Maybe you'll meet him."  
"What's his name?"  
The woman chuckled. "Oh, well, since we don't really own him, we just call him Doggie or Puppy."

  
And here Akira thought Ryo was the worst at naming things. They thanked the woman and made their way to the cabin Jenny had booked for them, on the very edge of the camp, built at the edge of the lake. It was small, just enough for a small living room area, a bedroom, a bathroom and a small balcony with an immediate view of the lake and surrounding forest.

 

Akira entered the bedroom, shoved his duffel bag in a corner and let himself fall backwards onto one of the beds.  
Ryo took a seat on the other bed which was barely a metre apart from Akira's. The two beds had been crammed into a tiny room, the only other item fitting inside a nightstand between the beds.

 

"So... filming?"

  
Ryo cackled and slapped his knee, clearly pleased with himself. Akira let him laugh for a bit, unimpressed. When Ryo quieted down, wiping a fake tear from his eye, Akira made sure to give him a dull look. That only made Ryo guffaw though. It wasn't cute either, it was an ugly unattractive sound, reminding Akira of a stereotypical geek in an 80s movie.

  
"You done?"

  
Ryo sighed, satisfied. "Yeah. I'm good now. Oh don't give me that look." Ryo rolled his eyes at Akira's sour expression. "I'll tell you what we're filming." He got up to dig around in his bag until he pulled out a camera and some weird strapping gear, presumably to attach the camera to your body.

  
"See this? We're gonna go ghost hunting."  
"Ghost hunting."

  
"Yes. Normally I would've had us sneak into the woods, none of that goody two shoes sign in at the reception to go camping shit, but - "

  
"You can barely call this camping, this is more like glamping. A house, with beds and a living room? How is that a wilderness experience?" Akira leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. He showed his canines in a grin. "Admit it Ryo, you just didn't want to sleep in a tent."

  
"What, you'd rather sleep in the dirt? By all means, Fudo, be my guest." Ryo smiled a sweet but icy smile.

  
"Hilarious."

  
Ryo winked, then waved the camera in his hands around to come back to the main topic. "Anyway, as I was saying, we can't just sneak in here because there's plenty of campers and hikers around, people would get suspicious. But if we're on here on an official thing, we can walk around all willy nilly, no questions asked."  
He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned his elbows against his knees. "I had Jenny call and tell management here that we are ghost hunters on a mission to research that mysterious blob, you know, from the photo. Jenny booked us this cabin and got us permission to go deeper into the woods, while wearing equipment. That way I can take my guns with me and they'll think it's some wack ass ghost communication device or some shit."

  
"Okay, fair enough, that makes sense. And you couldn't have told me about this earlier because...?"

  
"Because I love fucking with you, you should know better by now." Ryo clicked his tongue.  
Akira huffed in exasperation. He really should know better by now. It's not like he was actually mad. He scooted over to the edge of his bed and mirrored Ryo's position. "What now then?"

 

Ryo handed Akira a shirt and unpacked a matching one for himself. Akira held it up to inspect it - the shirt was black and had 'GHOST HUNTERS' printed in thick white letters both on the front and back of it.

 

"We blend into our cover up personas, of course. We're gonna ask some of the camp guests and staff for information on the local cryptid; pretending we're professional ghost hunters. Once night falls we find and kill the demon. Easy Peasy."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"The what? Cryptid rumours? Hah. Yeah I don't believe in that sorta stuff, I'm sure they made that up for publicity."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"Oh yeah, I definitely saw it man! Me and my girlfriend, we were in the forest until it got dark - my girlfriend likes collecting sticks an' pinecones 'n' shit for crafting, yeah let's not even... anyway, out of nowhere I feel like, a claw on my shoulder right, and I turn around, and I see this freaky thing, 'bout the size of a monkey, climbing up a tree. Was too fast to really make out what it looked like. Gonna be honest man, I grabbed my girlfriend and ran back to the camp, 's all I can tell ya."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

 "Well I can't tell you if it was a ghost or some spooky nonsense, but I have lost an awful lot of fish lures the past days. I keep putting them in the same spot and I swear, they just... disappear. Wife says I'm just forgetful though, so. Boy oh boy, if it IS a ghost, that there hooligan needs to cut that poltergeist crap out! I'm almost out of lures!"

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"You see this? The monster totally got me the other day. Yeah, look, this right here? Clawed me real good on my leg, I was wearing shorts, see, and I just take a stroll through the woods, minding my own business, when I get visciously attacked! Visciously, I swear! Couldn't really see the thing though, got me from behind, that fucker. Oh I'm scared alright, but god damn, I payed for this trip, I'm staying. On the camp grounds only from now on though. I need my legs man."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"Hah! Those rumours are just campfire ghost stories, kid. The thing people saw in the forest? It's that camp mascot, the dog, the dog! That silly thing runs around the forest like it's his personal playground, sometimes people get startled, that's all there is to it."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"Ohoho, you listen to me son. That thing out there? That ain't your average paranormal activity. I tell ya, I saw it in a dream, that thing is from another world, son, from another world!" 

 

 

\- - -

 

 

"Sooo... what do you think?"

 Ryo lit his cigarette and took a drag. They had spent all afternoon asking people around camp, with various results. Now they were taking a break on their cabin's ground level balcony, taking in the lakeside view and waiting for night time to come. Ryo was seated on a chair, his long legs crossed and propped up on the railing.

 

"Uh... lots of... interesting folk around here? I dunno man, most of the stuff sounded like some made up shit. Or like someone got scared by a squirrel and blew it way out of proportion."

 

 Ryo exhaled smoke with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I gotta say, none of this matches up with the demon lore I've read. Sounds more like a fairy tail trickster, if anything, and those aren't fucking real, demons are bad enough." He took another drag. "Most likely it's just a ghost story, literally all camps have those, I don't know why I expected any different." He exhaled the smoke from his nostrils, giving him a comical appearance of a dragon. "Guess this trip was a waste of time."

 

Akira stepped away from the railing he had leaned against and put his hand on Ryo's shoulder in reassurance. "Hey, we didn't even go into the forest yet. Maybe there will be some flesh eating demons out there, who knows? We came here for more puzzle pieces, remember?"

 

Ryo's eyes lit up as if he, indeed, had forgotten about that in the moment. "You're right. I was a fool. We're gonna get something out of this, I'll make sure of it." He pulled the sleeve of his jacket up to reveal the wing mark on his wrist, tracing it with his index finger. "Demons gobbling humans up is one thing, but now it's personal." He looked up at Akira and grinned, though there was only fiery determination behind his eyes. "Let's find us some cryptids, Akira."

 

 

\- - -

 

 

 

 

 

 


	7. 07

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hello friends. im sorry its been so long, and im sorry for what im about to say. i still love devilman and always will, but my drive to continue writing has dwindled over the past months.
> 
> ive tried to force myself, but it just doesnt feel right. ive been plagued with feelings of guilt for not updating, and i need some sort of closure. who knows, maybe one day ill return to this, but i cant make any promises.
> 
> therefore i decided to post the bit of the chapter i had written, with an added link to a post where i put all the notes on how TPOL was supposed to go - feel free to check it out. and hell, if anyone wants to write something similar, or even continue the fic themselves, you are super welcome to do so, edit my writing, add your own stuff.
> 
> im sorry, and thanks for reading.

The sound of crunching leaves, with the occasional crack of a twig being stepped on. It was a clear night, the moon illuminating the forest as best as it could through the sea of tree crowns. An owl fluttered between the branches, hooting eerily. Besides that, heavy silence. 

 

Akira focused, extended his supernatural senses like tendrils, to see, to hear, to smell, to sense. He felt tense with anticipation, so much so that his headwings had materialized. They twitched occasionally, in sync with his emotions. A bush rustled, the noise loud in the night air, and his headwings flared open. Both he and Ryo came to a halt, waiting, cautious.

 

There, in the thicket, something was definitely moving. Akira and Ryo both stood there, frozen, anticipating whatever happened next. Ryo's hand hovered over his gun holster hidden under his trenchcoat. From the direction of the bushes they hear a... juvenile sounding hoarse giggle? Ryo lowered his hand. He didn't want to shoot some kid that was in the middle of some moronic prank. Akira turned his head to the side, brows furrowed in confusion. He carefully stepped closer. Just when he had reached the bush, it rustled violently, and a black shape jumped out, on top of his head, and up into the tree crowns above them.

 

"What the-?!" Akira twisted around, trying to follow the something with his eyes, but it had disappeared without a trace. He turned to Ryo, expression flabberghasted. "What just happened?"

Ryo was covering his mouth, looking thoughtful but probably just trying not to laugh. "I don't know, a lost monkey? Certainly not a bloodthirsty demon." A bubble of laughter escaped his lips. Akira rolled his eyes, took of his shirt and tossed it in Ryo's face. 

 

"Oof-" 

"I'm going to scout the forest from above." He jumped upwards, released his wings for flight and melted into the night sky. Ryo shook his head in amusement. 

 

He slid his backpack off his shoulder to put Akira's shirt inside and grabbed his gun from his jacket. Now that he knew there wasn't some camping child playing ill-adviced midnight hide and seek in the woods, he felt he could drop the ghosthunter act. He took the camera harness off and dumped it in the backpack as well. He adjusted it on his back, looked upwards once to see Akira, and decided to keep walking. Akira would easily find him when the need would arise. Ryo took a moment to straighten his back. His gut told him he needed to go west, and so he turned on his heel and walked, scanning the surrounding shrubbery, the flashlight strapped to his chest creating shapes between the tree trunks. 

 

 

 

the rest of the notes and backstory as well as future bits of scenes : [nebufic](https://nebufic.tumblr.com/post/181431330221/im-sad-to-do-this-but-i-know-i-dont-have-the)


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